No Strings attached: Independent winners of Lok Sabha polls 2019

One man army

In the first general elections in 1952, 36 Independents won — the highest so far. The lowest was in 1991, when one Independent won. This time, four Independents will enter the Lok Sabha.

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2/5

Sumalatha Ambareesh

PARTY: Independent (backed by BJP)CONSTITUENCY: Mandya, Karnataka

VICTORY MARGIN: 1.26 lakh

The only Independent MLA from Karnataka, Sumalatha won a bruising contest against Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil. Denied a ticket by the Congress, the widow of former Congress minister Ambareesh had the backing of the BJP, which did not field a candidate in Mandya.

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3/5

Navnit Ravi Rana

With the support of the Congress-NCP combine, Rana defeated incumbent Anandrao Vithoba Adsul of the Shiv Sena, who had won the seat two times. Rana, a former actor, had come second in 2014 when she fought on an NCP ticket. Her win was notable in an election where the NDA won 41 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra.

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4/5

Mohanbhai Delkar

Between 1989 and 2004, Delkar won all Lok Sabha elections from this constituency, twice each as an Independent and as a Congress candidate and once each as a BJP candidate and representing his own outfit. He again fought on a Congress ticket in 2009 and 2014 but lost. In 2019, he won his third election as an Independent.

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5/5

Naba Kumar Sarania

Once a commander of insurgent outfit ULFA, Sarania became the first non-Bodo to win from the Kokrajhar constituency reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates in 2014. He has successfully defended the seat, defeating the candidate from Bodoland People’s Front, which is part of the NDA.